Mobile gaming has exploded in South Africa. As they often do in nations where smartphones and data plans become more accessible, gaming apps and mobile browser gaming sites are now a prominent feature in the lives of many adults.
It’s easygoing, casual entertainment for the masses, with research into the scene finding that the majority of adults are playing mobile games in South Africa areabout 71 percent, in fact. To further drill home how popular they are, the research also says that most gamers spend more than four hours per day on their mobiles, with racing, sports, action, and adventure games being the most popular.
South African mobile gaming has even picked up enough steam to encourage the creation of local developers and publishers. Now, over 660 games on Google Play have been published to the mobile app store by some 220 South African publishers. So here, we’re looking at how to play the best mobile games available in the bustling South African scene.
Get a game-ready smartphone
Smartphones have been clued-in to the mobile gaming revolution for quite some time. Now, many companies make their devices with gaming specifically in mind, increasing screen quality and the power of smartphones. Right now, three key brands dominate the argument for the best smartphones for gaming in the country: Samsung Galaxy, Apple iPhone, and LG ThinQ.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the standout, boasting a 6.8-inch screen, 1440×3200 resolution, 16 GB of RAM, and the mighty Snapdragon 888 CPU. It’s big, it’s powerful, but it is very expensive. Price tends to be the issue with most of the leading gaming smartphones, but there are many budget phones that can handle gaming well. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro might be the best bet in this regard, featuring a 6.67-inch screen, 24400 x 1080 resolution, 6 GB of RAM, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G.
Finding the best mobile games on the market
As there are just so many games for mobile users out there, it can be difficult to find those that are worth playing. When it comes to finding the best online mobile casinos, though, it’s made much easier by reviews and welcome offers. Sites rated as the top mobile casinos are guaranteed to have the best games and offer bonuses. This is key as, with a deposit bonus and free spins, you get to try the top games with bonus funds rather than your real money.
From the Google Play store, it’s rarely a bad idea to start with the most popular titles as the crowd tends to know where to go. In South Africa, the most popular free games are Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, Call of Duty Mobile, and Clash Royale. Candy Crush is the only one of those top-ranking games that isn’t a multiplayer action or strategy game, but the puzzler certainly tests your gaming skill.
For more communal games with friends, you can’t go wrong with Minecraft. It’s not a free game, but it is relatively cheap with so much gaming scope. While you may need some help updating the game, Among Us is also a wildly popular way to game with friends. Pitting secret killers against outer space workers, it’s a wonderfully simple, skillful, and entertaining game – especially if you can hook it up with a video or voice call.
Step up to the competitive gaming scene
Sometimes, you just find that perfect game that you take to so quickly that you start to blaze past your online opponents regularly. Still quite a young scene, mobile eSports have a huge future, and the tentpole games are starting to cement themselves. Easily the biggest of these globally right now is PUBG Mobile. Even though it was stripped of its colossal Indian player base, it still boasts enough players to have a high-quality, competitive scene which even includes a $5 million prize pool.
Arena of Valor has also barged its way into the competitive mobile gaming scene recently. Akin to League of Legends, King of Glory, as it’s known in China, boasts more than 70 million hours of eSports viewing hours and a daily active players count that recently hit 100 million. Finally, already nurturing a small South African eSports community is Vainglory. It stages several competitions each year, with the largest prize pool to date being $120,000.
Mobile gaming in South Africa will only continue to grow, so be sure to get the best gaming phone, use the best platforms and games, and even dive into the competitive scene if you have the talent.